Let’s keep our seed activity expectations in check

W

elcome to the TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here.

It is always nice to start a new year with a dose of optimism — as long as it is warranted. After reviewing PitchBook’s latest analysis, I am starting to reconsider my expectations for seed-stage dealmaking in 2023, and maybe you will, too. Let’s explore. — Anna

Upcoming pressure?

As 2022 came to a close, I tried to keep my expectations in check: If even Instacart was no longer ready to go public just yet, I had to gear up for the dearth of tech IPOs to continue in the first quarter or even the first half of 2023.

However, seed-stage venture capital activity was one of the things I felt reasonably optimistic about for the new year. Sure, public market woes had trickled down to private dealmaking. But while post-Series A deal count and deal volume were impacted, angel and seed-stage investment activity seemed pretty stable.